Knights Head Coach Michael Trumbull said he aimed for his team to run as a pack to minimize the time between the first and fifth runners.

“I knew going into it that if our guys could run together… they had a shot at winning it,” Trumbull said. “That was the game plan going in.”

Two Northern High School-Calvert County boys finished in first and second place (17:01 minutes, 17:02 minutes), followed by Wheaton seniors Jason Scott (17:36) in third and Alexis Fuentes in fifth (18:04).

Trumbull said the regional meet was the coming together of his runners’ hard work.

With three rookies and two veterans, the Knights spent three weeks leading up to regionals working on running in packs.

“I think it was overall the best team performance we’ve had all year, by far,” Trumbull said.

While pack running was new for some of the team members, running hills was not.

Trumbull noted the school’s home course contained multiple hills; they practiced hill repeats throughout the season. He said his runners carried out the strategy well.

“When one would start to slow down, the other would start to pick it up,” Trumbull said.

Scott said he thought he had a shot at winning the race but lost it early.

“I would sometimes catch up to them on the down-hills and then on the up-hills they would pull away,” he added.

Despite Northern-Calvert County’s one-two punch, Wheaton’s third through fifth runners placed the highest of all the teams’ third through fifth runners.